The present invention is directed to devices such as toys and dolls, synchronized accessories, ornaments and the like. More particularly, the present invention pertains to devices displaying various behaviors in response to transmitted signals, and synchronizing the behaviors of a plurality of such devices.
Both children and adults enjoy playing with items that stimulate the senses. Very popular are toys, figures, or devices which creatively relay visual or audio stimulation and engage the user's imagination or which are configured to soothe.
With increases in technology, electronic devices have become increasingly complicated and expensive. Synchronizing the behavior of independent devices is usually approached through various network topologies that require handshaking protocols to avoid signal crashes and to establish the presence of new devices as they enter the network. Networks which establish connections in real-time as new devices are brought in and out of the network are called ‘ad-hoc’ mesh networks. There are several standards emerging for ad-hoc networking (for example, BlueTooth), but other standards are emerging.
While these technologies provide powerful tools for devices to communicate with each other, they are also expensive, unwieldy and require sophisticated interaction algorithms. There is also a limit to the number of devices that can connect to such a network as performance can become sluggish as the number of devices in the network increases.
Synchronizing the behavior of electronic devices has been a long-desired feature in the toy industry, as well as other industries, and there have been many attempts to create meaningful interaction between independent devices. Most of these have been hindered by the same issues that make ad-hoc networking so complicated and more sophisticated ad-hoc networks mentioned above are typically cost-prohibitive.
Accordingly, there is a need for a less complicated device capable of sophisticated behaviors and easy and inexpensive to manufacture.